Luckily, I awoke at 05:00 hrs without the aid of my alarm clock which had stopped during the night. I sneaked quietly into the main hall to pack and set off for the Coca Cola Bus Station just before 06:00 hrs.
The bus to Manuel Antonio was quite a new, medium-sized bus with the destination painted on the windscreen. Like the destinations on other buses, the letters were decorated with an infilling of beach and palm tree pictures.
The miserable looking driver filled his bus calmly and with a welcome efficiency and we set off just before 07:00 hrs. We passed out of town and through green, hilly rural scenery. I kept nodding off and being rudely awakened when my head hit the seat in front, or I slumped sideways into my neighbour.
After two hours we pulled onto a dirt road which followed the coast. Palm tree plantations lined the road, with the hairy trunks lining up in lanes which ran squarely as well as diagonally in a chequerboard pattern.
Occasionally we passed small communities with two storey wooden houses with green-painted corrugated iron roofs. These were arranged around a grassy square with a football pitch in the middle, or at least two crude wooden goals.
At 10:30 hrs we pulled into the dusty town of Puerto Quepos, A Pacific coastal town celebrated for its world-class sport fishing and the gateway to the pristine beaches of Manuel Antonio. We off loaded the family with the baby who had been crying for the last half hour.
A few minutes later we passed some beautiful beaches with offshore islands and pulled into the green verdant village of Manuel Antonio.
With the establishment of Manuel Antonio National Park in 1972, the people of Costa Rica decided to preserve, for future generations, one of the most beautiful and bio-diverse areas in the world. Although it is the country’s smallest national park, the stunning beauty and diversity of wildlife in its 683 hectares is unequalled.
Manuel Antonio contains a charming combination of the rain forest, beaches, and coral reefs. These beaches are the most beautiful in the country, lined with lush forest, and the snorkeling is excellent, too.
The forest is home to sloths, iguanas, the rare and adorable squirrel monkeys, white-faced monkeys, and millions of colorful little crabs. The trail that winds around Punta Catedral features some spectacular views. The park is easy to reach, south of the town of Quepos, and is near a good selection of hotels and restaurants.
Visiting the park, one is treated to an abundant diversity of wildlife. Cathedral Point, with its forest topped cliffs, was once an island but is now connected to the coast by a thin strip of island. This land bridge now forms the spine separating the park’s two most popular beaches, Playa Espadilla Sur and Playa Manuel Antonio. The southern facing beach, Playa Manuel Antonio, is a picturesque half-mile long, white sand crescent bisecting deep green foliage to one side and a private, secluded cove to the other.
I got a basic wooden room at the back of the “Soda el Grano de Oro” for ₡ CRC 250. I then set to work washing clothes and sewing up my bag, the end of which had practically been torn off on the bus.
These tasks completed I settled down on my bed to write my diary, trying to shield the pages from the constant dripping of my sweat. At 12:45 hrs. I set off to explore the area. There was a splendid beach with a narrow strip of white sand between the turbulent sea and rich tropical forest.
A freak wave rushed up the beach and soaked my trousers and T-shirt. The ocean was littered with leaves. I walked back to the hotel to wash my sea-soaked clothes and dry out my wallet. It was only 15:00 hrs. so I had a siesta, napping until 18:00 hrs.
Then I had a shower and waited in the restaurant for the couple who ran it to return and cook the evening meals. I had a couple of beers and talked with the other guests, a Dane, a German and another chap with a Germanic accent.
Finally, at about 20:00 hrs. the couple roared up on a motorbike and cooked us all a great red snapper each. Afterwards I went out into the insect-vibrant night in search of a lively bar and the good nightlife that Alaskan Chris had told me existed here.
I failed to find anything of interest and after an expensive ₡ CRC 55 beer in a pleasant bar with music, I returned to the Grano de Oro where beer was only ₡ CRC 35. I chatted with the Danish guy who seems to have visited here a few times over the years and has witnessed it’s increasing commercialisation.
He told me that our “hotel” was the last bastion of the budget traveller, and even they were going to have a telephone installed so that they could take phone bookings! We all turned in at 22:00 hrs. There seems to be a large variety of bizarre and often huge insects here, so I checked the room thoroughly before getting into bed.
Apparently, it is possible to see approximately 352 species of birds, 109 species of mammals, large numbers of marine fauna, and hundreds of insects here. As I nodded off rain started drumming on the corrugated iron roof.
I awoke once in the night dreaming that the room was alive with rats and insects. I think that it was due to the noise of rain, now stopped, dripping from the roof and trees.
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